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SmartThotics: The Intelligent Alternative to Conventional Over-the-Counter Orthotics
For more than 120 years, over-the-counter orthotics have been built around a single idea: control excessive pronation by propping up the medial longitudinal arch. The reasoning seemed obvious — if a collapsing arch drives the foot into pronation, then supporting that arch should stop it. The problem is that recent research has quietly dismantled this assumption.

Tom Michaud
Jun 19


Not All Load Is Equal: A Joint Mechanical Perspective on Rugby Performance
Understanding the dominant mechanical stresses experienced by rugby players can help practitioners make more informed decisions when planning strength training.
By considering not only how much work athletes perform, but also the type of stress they repeatedly encounter, practitioners may be better positioned to develop targeted and context-specific strength training interventions.

Francesco Sarno
Jun 16


Speed Training: A Systems Approach to Developing Speed in Athletes
Speed is one of the most coveted qualities in sport. It is pursued obsessively, dissected in slow motion, and marketed through countless training systems that promise to unlock it.
Yet for all the attention it receives, speed training remains one of the most misunderstood domains in strength and conditioning.

Antonio Robustelli
Jun 9


Democratizing Biomechanics with AI: The Science Behind Ochy
Biomechanics has long been one of the most valuable tools available to healthcare and performance professionals - especially in the world of sports and athletics. For years, these insights have existed primarily within specialized environments using advanced laboratory equipment and highly technical systems.
At Ochy, our vision is not to replace that world. It is to make access to biomechanical insight dramatically more available.

Claudio Corti
May 29


Exercise Specificity: Why Function and Demands Matter More Than Positions
In recent years, the conversation around exercise specificity has drifted toward a narrow and often superficial interpretation: if an exercise looks like the sport, then it must be specific. This trend has become particularly visible in sprint training, where isometric holds in “sprint‑like” positions are frequently promoted as highly specific tools for both training and testing.

Antonio Robustelli
May 23


Foot‑Strike Dynamics in Sprinting
If you watch an elite sprinter at maximal velocity, the first thing that stands out is how little seems to happen. The movement looks clean, almost effortless, as if the athlete is simply letting speed carry them forward. But beneath that apparent simplicity lies a highly constrained biomechanical principle: the entire expression of sprinting is shaped by the way the foot touches the ground.

Antonio Robustelli
May 19


The Spine in Human Locomotion and Sport Performance
The human spine plays a paradoxical role in contemporary sport science and sports medicine discussions. On one hand, it is universally acknowledged as central to posture, movement, and force transmission. On the other, it is frequently framed as a structure that must be protected from load, rotation, and compression. Modern biomechanics challenges this narrative.

Antonio Robustelli
Apr 17


Treatment and Prevention of Turf Toe
Turf toe is far more complex than a simple hyperextension injury. While contact mechanisms remain relevant, a substantial proportion of cases arise from modifiable biomechanical factors such as excessive pronation, functional hallux limitus, restricted FHL glide, and insufficient intrinsic foot strength. Effective prevention and rehabilitation require a comprehensive approach that addresses these underlying mechanisms rather than merely treating symptoms.

Tom Michaud
Apr 14


Sprinting as a Coupled Locomotor System
Biomechanical evidence strongly supports the view that sprinting is not a series of single‑leg hops. It is a coupled, history‑dependent locomotor system in which stance, flight, and swing phases are highly interconnected. Reducing sprinting to unilateral hopping may simplify coaching narratives, but it obscures the mechanisms that actually govern performance.

Antonio Robustelli
Apr 8


(Un)Movement Screenings: Why Tests Like the FMS Fail to Capture How Athletes Actually Move
Static, constrained movement screening tests like the FMS are built on outdated assumptions about motor control and movement quality. By ignoring variability, degeneracy, and the role of constraints, they fail to capture the essence of athletic movement. Worse, they risk misleading practitioners into overvaluing appearance over function.

Antonio Robustelli
Mar 28


From Force to Speed: Why Performance Professionals Need Both Force Plates and Timing Gates
If you are serious about integrating force plates and timing gates into one coherent workflow, Strength By Numbers provides a connected solution through the AxIT performance platform.

Andrew Lemon
Mar 3


The Language of Movement: Rhythm as the Organizing Principle of Skilled Performance
Skilled movement does not emerge from isolated positions or bio-mechanical landmarks and checkpoints. It is likely the product of temporally organized patterns that the human system naturally stabilizes. Thus, rhythm can be defined as a key feature of skilled human movement and modern coaching practices.

Antonio Robustelli
Feb 28


Hamstring “Tantrums”: Effective Exercise or Social Media Noise?
In recent years, hamstring tantrums (also referred to as Swiss‑ball kicks or flutter kicks) have gained popularity, largely supported by EMG studies reporting high levels of hamstring activation during the exercise, and viral trending videos on social media. However, what's important to understand is that muscle activation alone is a poor criterion for judging the usefulness of an exercise.

Antonio Robustelli
Feb 24


Beyond Mechanics: Understanding Movement as a Complex Emergent Phenomenon
For decades, the fields of sports science and medicine have operated under a reductionist paradigm. We've often viewed the human body as a collection of parts. However, a growing body of evidence and a shift toward dynamical systems theory suggest that this perspective may be incomplete.
This article explores the concept of movement systems, how movement patterns emerge through the interaction of complex constraints, and why "movement solutions" are more important than "ideal

Antonio Robustelli
Feb 19


Arch Height and Injury: Is There Really No Connection?
Foot strengthening exercises are inexpensive, easy to perform, and result in significantly better outcomes.

Tom Michaud
Feb 12


Hamstrings Behaviour and Movement Expression: the Great Debate
Current evidence suggests that the hamstrings function primarily as an eccentric energy-absorbing brake during the late-swing phase, necessary to decelerate the lower limb and manage loads that exceed isometric capacity. However, the presence of long tendons and specific architectures in muscles like the BFlh ensures that tendon contributions and spring-like behavior are also vital.
The issue of hamstring behavior remains complex and multifactorial.

Antonio Robustelli
Feb 3


Introducing the Power Carriers of Human Performance
When it comes to locomotion, very few structures can be defined as fundamental in carrying over the responsibility of efficient performance as the intrinsic and extrinsic muscles of the foot.

Antonio Robustelli
Jan 14


Fine-tuning the Sacroiliac Joint for Sport Performance
The sacroiliac joints (SIJs) are specialised structures that serve as stable yet slightly flexible connections between the lower limbs and the rest of the body, allowing efficient force transmission. These joints are large, flat, and combine both synovial and fibrous elements. Their highly congruent surfaces offer considerable friction, and strong ligaments further support their function, resulting in effective force transfer with minimal movement (Vleeming et al. , 2012). Re

Antonio Robustelli
Dec 13, 2025


Does Force Absorption Exist?
How many times we've heard about force absorption within the strength and conditioning industry? Usually, when the expression "force absorption" is being used, the intent is either to describe the process of attenuating the impact during foot strike or the neuromuscular capability to handle and manage the amount of forces produced during a given movement. However, if we want to properly employ biomechanics in our own language we should be aware that force absorption does not

Antonio Robustelli
Nov 29, 2025


Three (at least) Reasons Why You Should Care About Foot Performance
Every coach who really trains athletes on a daily basis and really knows the discriminants of human performance is aware of the fact that building the “perfect” performance machine is not a question of one single detail respect to others. Sports performance is a delicate balance between several aspects converging into one main goal: it’s the whole body synchrony merging into one specific output. One of the aspects in which coaches and sports medicine/rehab professionals shoul

Antonio Robustelli
Nov 14, 2020
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